Generally described, computing devices utilize a communication network, or a series of communication networks, to exchange data. In some situations, data to be exchanged is divided into a series of packets that can be transmitted between a sending computing device and a recipient computing device. In general, each packet can be considered to include two primary components, namely, control information and payload data. The control information corresponds to information utilized by one or more communication networks to deliver the payload data. For example, control information can include source and destination network addresses, error detection codes, and packet sequencing identification, and the like. Typically, control information is found in packet headers and trailers included within the packet and adjacent to the payload data.
In practice, in a packet-switched communication network, packets are transmitted between multiple physical networks, or sub-networks. Generally, the physical networks include a number of hardware devices that receive packets from a source network component and forward the packet to a recipient network component. The packet routing hardware devices are typically referred to as routers. Generally described, routers can operate with two primary functions or planes. The first function corresponds to a control plane, in which the router learns the set of outgoing interfaces that are most appropriate for forwarding received packets to specific destinations. The second function is a forwarding plane, in which the router sends the received packet to an outbound interface.
With the introduction of virtualization technology, a computing service provider can now provide computing resources to customers dynamically and/or in a scalable manner. As the computing resource demands of the customer increase, the computing service provider can allocate additional computing resources. Such resources can be provided to the customer as part of a virtual network connectable to the customer's own physical network. These computing resources can be provided to a customer transparently, without the customer's knowledge of where on an associated physical network such a resource exists.